Mark Williams leads 9-7 over John Higgins after second session: World Snooker Championship 2011
The second session of the semi-final clash of the World Snooker Championship 2011 between Mark Williams and the Scotsman John Higgins ended with the Welshman leading by two frames at 9-7 on Friday, April 29.
The third session of the match will begin on Saturday at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
The pair has been awesome during the season as well as in the championship with their deadly game play. The match has already been a nail-biting encounter as both players tussled to gain a strong position. However, Williams has a psychological advantage
over Higgins because he has beaten the Scottish cueist two times before (1999, 2000) at the same stage. The semi-final has been a brutal test of nerves and experience for the pair so far.
The first session ended with 5-3 after Williams’ back-to-back frame wins by 74-16 and 74-0. However, Higgins did fire extraordinary century clearances of 135 and 120 in his three frames to unsettle his opponent but somehow Williams coped with that to lead
the session.
The 36-year-old Williams did the damage again after he grabbed the first frame of the second session with 68-0 to extend his lead to 6-3. At that point, Higgins was facing immense pressure because Williams was not giving him any chance to get back into the
game.
The North Lanarkshire potter Higgins moved with one frame up at 6-4 after he took the second frame by 0-106 but Williams broke his hopes again as he won the next frame in one visit with 115-0 firing a rattling century knock of 115.
The Welshman raced into a four-frame lead at 9-5 after 14 frames and Higgins’ chances of bouncing back into the game appeared thin. However, the world number one Higgins held his nerves and capitalised with back-to-back frame wins to surge two frames up
at 9-7 before the end of the second session.
Meanwhile, youngster Judd Trump and the Chinese ace Ding Junhui are levelled at 12-12 after three sessions of their semi-final match of the Championship.
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